Suspecting illicit affair with mom, Latur teenager kills best friend

Latur (Maharashtra), Jan 1 (IANS) Suspecting his mother of having an affair, a Latur boy allegedly hacked his best friend and neighbour to death with a sickle at his shack in the fields, shocking the people in the district, officials said here on Monday.

The incident took place in Vadji village under the jurisdiction of Bhada Police Station on Saturday after the body of Ranjit T. Mali alias Balu, 22, was found in a bloodied state in the field shack.

“We registered a case of murder and launched investigations which revealed many shocking aspects and further probe is underway,” Bhada Police Station head Balasaheb Dongare told IANS.

Police teams trying to crack the case spoke to the deceased Mali’s friends and relatives and learnt that he was allegedly having ‘an affair’ with some local woman who was his best friend’s mother.

“We quickly managed to track the 32-year-old woman, who was the victim’s neighbour and started probing her in detail on her purported relationship with the deceased,” Dongare said.

Meanwhile, another police official in the investigating team learnt that the woman’s 17-year-old son, studying in Class XI, had given an old sickle to a friend in the Vadji village and asked him to sharpen it for him for use in the fields.

“We summoned the boy for questioning on the sickle matter, but he gave evasive and misleading replies. Later, we subjected him to a grilling when he broke down and finally confessed to the crime,” Dongare said.

As per the boy’s statement, he suspected an affair between his mother and close friend Mali, and was filled with embarrassment, shame and hatred against the latter.

Incidentally, the boy and Mali – who was educated till Class X (SSC) - live in neighbouring homes and also own adjacent fields, and the latter used to spend nights in the shack to keep an eye over the crop.

Since the two were close friends, Mali had unhindered access to the woman’s home which made her son doubt something fishy was cooking between them.

The doubts were further fuelled by the fact that the woman is estranged from her husband for several years and lives alone with her son (the accused), while a couple of years ago, Mali, - reputed to be a local 'romeo' - was embroiled in a torrid affair with the boy’s cousin-sister, who got married last year.

Interestingly, the boy has admitted to the police that he even quietly ‘spied’ on Mali and his mom for several days, keeping a watch on their movements and meetings, etc.

After he was finally convinced that “there was something going on between them”, the teenager vowed to finish off his friend, and planned out the diabolic killing.

He executed his macabre plan to eliminate Mali in the early hours of Saturday and then went home, behaving normally.

Dongare said that the unfortunate part is the investigations have revealed that “there was nothing serious going on between the boy’s mother and his best friend”, and the murder was the outcome of some misunderstandings and rumours.

“We have checked the mobile call records of the woman and the victim, interrogated her thoroughly, and though they used to chat often, there was nothing untoward between them as suspected by the boy,” Dongare added.

After the police investigations are completed, the boy will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, which will take the further decisions in the matter.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)

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